Syracuse, N.Y. -- On the first day of the 3-on-3 basketball competition at the National Senior Games in Cleveland last Friday, a player from a team out of North Carolina walked over to a rather large man on the opposite end of the court.

It was Roosevelt Bouie, the former Syracuse University star. The one-time second-round draft pick of the Dallas Mavericks and a veteran of 13 professional seasons in Italy and Spain. Roosevelt Bouie. All 7-feet, 290 pounds of him.

The North Carolina player had just one question. When Bouie provided the answer, the guy yelled back to his teammates, "Yep! They're in our bracket.''

Bouie's team, the aptly named Upstate Boys featuring seven men from Upstate New York area, would eventually meet up with that North Carolina squad. The Upstate Boys downed North Carolina twice, including the final on Monday, to earn the gold medal in the double-elimination competition.

"It was an absolute blast,'' said Bouie, who played at Syracuse from 1976 to 1980. "They were tough, hard-fought games, but everyone was very respectful.''

The Upstate Boys drew a bit of ridicule before play started. While most of the teams in Cleveland wore spiffy uniforms, Bouie and his teammates wore regular shorts and homemade t-shirts.

"They were laughing at us,'' Bouie said. "That didn't last long.''

It's a wonder anybody was laughing at the Upstate Boys since those t-shirts had to be XXXLs. In addition to Bouie, the Upstate Boys featured two players who stood 6-foot-9, another that was 6-8 and another that was 6-7.

"They could all run, too,'' Bouie said. "We had a big team, but they were mobile and agile. We would pop out, isolate a guy and just beat them into submission.''

Bouie had met most of his teammates while playing against them in a basketball league Rochester.

"I've been playing against these guys for years,'' Bouie said. "They were putting together a team to compete in the Senior Games. I was only 52 or 53, but it takes two years to qualify for nationals. They put me on the roster and I never attended a single game.

"They won the state and qualified and by then I was 55,'' Bouie said.

Bouie had the highest basketball profile among the Upstate Boys, but most of his teammates had played college ball. The team included Rich Kometz (Hobart), Tim Arden (Cortland), Clark Cogen (Central Michigan), Mike Pulato (Buffalo State), Larry Luke (Alfred Tech) and Bill Turbey.

Bouie put off a trip to Italy, where he was arranging for several players from the United States to audition for roster spots with Italian pro teams, to participate in the National Senior Games.

The 3-on-3 games were played differently than the usual halfcourt contest. The games consisted of two 20-minute halves. The defensive team had to take the ball outside the 3-point line before shooting. There was a running clock, which stopped in the last two minutes. There were referees and fouls were called.

The competition went from Friday to Monday and consisted of seven games. The Upstate Boys lost one game during Friday's qualifying rounds to a team from Delaware.

"They were exhausted after beating us,'' said Bouie. "They lost their next game by 40.''

Bouie himself was feeling it after the four days of competition came to an end.

"I felt like I'd been hit by a truck yesterday,'' he said, "but today I felt good. I woke up and said, 'We did it.'''